money
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Happy farookin’ Tax Day
The latest in Drudge fu: Gee, I wonder how much overlap there is between these two groups. Freeloading bastards. Update (19 April). Michael Walsh, writing in the New York Post, gets behind my idea of the Non-Alternative Minimum Tax: One way to get a grip — unemotionally, intellectually — on the problem doesn’t even involve Read more
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OK, there’s at least one sane teacher in this country
Mike Mazenko’s neighbor had a frozen pipe fixed, for $300. “…current education reform based almost entirely on standardized test scores and college degrees is the wrong direction for Colorado and for the United States.” Tip from Community College Spotlight. Update (26 February). Thomas Benton thinks this is the beginning of a perfect storm in education. Read more
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Listening to Peter Orszag
Former CBO Director Peter Orszag spoke last night at Trinity University on the looming financial crisis. He was quite informative, giving some good insights into Federal budget and spending. His take is that the Federal deficit will be driven primarily by health care spending, and suggested that emerging technology that identifies and promotes “best practices” Read more
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Here there be monsters
Nicholas Taleb (of The Black Swan fame) describes the Fourth Quadrant and the limits of statistics. I have nothing against economists: you should let them entertain each others with their theories and elegant mathematics, and help keep college students inside buildings. But beware: they can be plain wrong, yet frame things in a way to Read more
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Heads up guys, those are real bullets he’s shootin’
Texas Governor Rick Perry fires a $10,000 shot across the bow of the great fleet of Texas universities. They all say it can’t be done, except at three Texas colleges. Not to worry, the Legislature is planning to shut those 3 bad examples down, probably so they don’t make everyone else look bad. Unlike some Read more
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Why Texans think Californians are stupid, #4
The City of San Jose has posted their salary data online. Standout entry: the retiring Police Chief at $534,576. Tip from Drudge. Read more
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I don’t think that word means what you think it means
Post Service warns of default… The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said it suffered a loss of $329 million in the first quarter of federal fiscal year 2011. That compared with a loss of $297 million a year earlier. Don’t worry, they’re going to raise rates, cut hours, and lobby Read more
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Don’t take that student loan!
…unless you’re damned sure you can pay it off. Good luck on that “Tell Congress…” jive. They’re broke, and definitely not in the mood to listen to your whiney crap when 25%+ of student loans are in default. Infographic by College Scholarships.org Tip from Boing Boing. Update (15 February). If you do take the loan, Read more
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Transparency, thy name is Texas
The Texas Tribune has a wonderful database of (Texas) government employee salaries, searchable of course. Give yourself a big surprise by searching for “Ricardo Romo” (current UTSA President). Read more
The Random Texan 